Carbohydrate Addict's Diet

The remarkable success of The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet -- by Rachael
Heller, MD, and Richard Heller, MD, and first published in 1993 -- led to a
handful of best-selling books. Each is based on a single theory: Many overweight people are "carbohydrate
addicts." Among these people, biological processes that convert food into energy fail to perform as they are supposed to and, the
Hellers say, "for reasons that are not yet clearly understood, sustained high
levels of insulin in the blood result." The elevated insulin,
according to their theory, makes carbohydrate addicts crave food throughout the
day. But a big question -- why does this condition create carbohydrate craving? -- is not
answered.

Given the premise, the Hellers claim that this is not a diet for everybody --
only for those with this metabolic imbalance that they call
"carbohydrate addiction." However, their "documented research" shows that 75% of overweight
adults identify themselves as "carbohydrate addicts," but they maintain that the
actual figure may be as high as 85%. Alas, these theories on addiction and the
related figures are not founded on scientific research.